NINE members of a cocaine gang who flooded North Wales with the class A drug have been jailed for a total of 44 years.

The gang, headed by business partners who ran a car-wash business, was caught as a result of under-cover police work codenamed Operation Tricorn.

Mold Crown Court was told Andrew Ross of Hawarden, assisted by James Lee Nevitt of Greenfield and Daniel Lee Williams of Bagillt, organised the distribution of cocaine brought from Liverpool.

One consignment of cocaine last October was taken to Rhyl but intercepted by North Wales Police.

Prosecuting barrister John Philpotts said that once in North Wales, the cocaine was diluted from 57% purity to about 25% and compressed at a lock-up unit rented by Andrew Robert Palmer at Rhuddlan. Palmer then passed the tablets on to couriers lower down the chain.

Judge John Rogers QC told Ross and Nevitt that they were at the heart of the conspiracy and warned that if they had been convicted after trial then they would have been jailed for 15 years. But they had pleaded guilty and each received 10 years.

Judge Rogers said that all four had admitted bringing large quantities of cocaine into North Wales.

Sophisticated arrangements were in place under which cocaine was bought over the border for transport by couriers to Rhyl. It was said that the size of the deliveries were never more than those found by the police but they each had a street value of £9,500.

The judge said it was impossible to assess how frequently the deliveries were made, although police had watched them on consecutive days.

Even if deliveries were twice a week it meant a huge amount.

Ross and Nevitt, he said, were the driving forces behind the conspiracy.

Both ran a car-wash business and the judge said whether this was simply a cover or not, he did not know.

“I am quite satisfied that this was your business,” he said. “The two of you, from the observation and telephone evidence, were at the very heart of this conspiracy.”

The other defendants would not be in the dock but for them. Palmer’s part was lesser but it was crucial, he said. He was “a committed lieutenant” involved in the collection and distribution of the drugs and provided the equipment and premises in Rhuddlan where the drugs were diluted.

Judge Rogers told Williams that his part was less and he took into account that he was only 21.

The court heard he was given cocaine by Ross and Nevitt to feed his habit but agreed to drop packages off for them and allowed packages to be kept in his garden.

Five others were jailed yesterday afternoon.

Anglesey garage owner Michael Eccles, 40, of St Seiriols, Holyhead, and William Coxen, 42, of Llugwy Road in Kinmel Bay, were convicted of being involved in the supply of cocaine at an earlier trial.

Eccles – who had a previous conviction for drug supply – got 4½ years. Coxen, convicted of picking up cocaine from an alleyway in Rhyl and taking it to Holyhead, was jailed for 2½ years

The judge said that Eccles was a drugs dealer who was supplying cocaine in Anglesey.

Coxen picked up the drugs but before he took them to Holyhead he picked up members of his family to make it look like a family outing.

The case against Gary Watkinson, 30, of George Street in Holyhead, who was also convicted, was adjourned.